Memories of a forgotten childhood: A Fathers shame
by GinaGold fan
Summary: 12. This story is the sequal to Memories of a forgotten childhood. The last fic concentrated on Ginas Mum so this fic is still about Ginas family but this time it is about her Dad. Please read and review.x
1. Chapter 1

**Ok guys and gals this is my next fic in this series.**** This follows on from the fic, Memories of a forgotten childhood. This continues with the idea of looking more in depth at Ginas' life.**** Not quite so sure what is going to happen with this one just yet but hopefully the ideas will keep flowing lol. Thanks to those who reviewed my previous story it is much appreciated. Please read and review this one. Cheers!!!!!!**

"Good morning everyone, I trust we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed." Alex said as she walked into the briefing room, only to be greeted by lots of blank, sleepy looks. "Or maybe not as the case may be." She added.

The relief had been out celebrating the previous night in the Seven Bells. Top brass had dipped their hands into their pockets to treat the team, since they had worked extra over time to bust a major crack dealer. They had all earned the right since the crack dealers' heavy's had landed many of them with cuts and bruises, and a couple of them in hospital.

Alex herself had ended up with a fractured wrist but that hadn't stopped her bringing down the crack dealer himself. Heaton had been very impressed by her 'heroics', which Alex had modestly put down to luck.

"Ok moving onto the first topic on our agenda. There has been a spate of street robberies on Canley high street in the last few weeks. Now the Superintendent is very keen that we get a result on this one. As far as our intelligence goes, it's a group of no more than five youths ranging from about fifteen to early twenties. They are targeting older women and as time progresses they seem to be getting more dangerous. Their last victim was Emily Price; she had a serious heart attack due to the assault and is in a serious but stable condition at St Hughes. Ok Reg and Tony you're in 21patrolling Canley high street and the surrounding area. Will and Sally you're on foot patrol on Canley High Street. The rest of you, it's the same patrols as usual." She said.

Once everyone left the briefing room, Alex headed back to the Sergeants office. She walked in to find Smithy wearing his full dress uniform and going over some case notes.

"Oh, don't we look handsome." She teased.

"Just because you're the teachers' pet doesn't mean the rest of us are; some of us actually have to work for a living." He shot back with a smirk.

Alex wacked him on the top of his arm before he pulled her into a tight hug. She kissed him passionately, and giggled as he practically ducked when she ran her hands through his carefully groomed hair.

"Oi careful, it took me ages to get my quiff righ'." He said as he quickly spiked his short brown hair again.

"Are you in court all day?" She asked him grudgingly.

"Yeah I am unfortunately. So it looks like you'll have to buy your own lunch today." He mocked.

She glared at him with her hands on her hips and he smiled cheekily at her.

"Anyway I had better be off or else I'll be late." He said as he kissed her goodbye and headed off down the hall.

Alex sat behind her desk and started on the paperwork that desperately needed doing. It was spilling out of her in-tray untidily and making the office look a mess.

A couple of hours into her shift and Alex had already had enough. She felt the need for some much deserved refs, getting up from her chair and logging out of the computer, she peered across the corridor into her Mums office. Gina was also sat at her desk looking stressed and trying to file through a lot of paper work. Alex went over and opened the door.

"You look like you could do with a coffee break." She said looking at her Mum.

"You're not wrong there." Gina said as she raised herself from her own desk.

They both walked through the corridors down to the canteen and Alex bought them both lunch. Gina relaxed a little now she was away from her office and the mountain of paperwork that awaited her. She hadn't been back long after the death of her Mother. She had decided to take a couple of weeks off as compassionate leave. Her Brother Richard had decided that he had had enough of being in hiding and wanted to come back to Sun Hill for good. They had spent most of the two weeks together catching up on each other's news.

"So, how you doing?" Alex asked.

Gina looked at her daughter with a slight smile.

"I'm fine. I'm getting back into things again now. Davey has been great and it's been nice the three of us being together again. That is him, me and Richard. It's given us a chance to talk about old times." She explained.

"Yeah, and I've finally been able to meet your brother; considering I've heard so much about him." Alex replied.

"You're a lot like him you know, in personality. Although your Dad reckons you look more like me." Gina said.

"Well if that's the case then I can't go wrong can I?" Alex smiled.

"So what are you working on at the moment then?" Gina's tone of voice changed to a much more professional one.

"Well at the moment I'm working on a case that goes back to the very early eighties. It's something that cropped up in another investigation. I haven't got much to go on to be honest, but the paperwork takes up a hell of a lot of time anyway." She said.

"Oh tell me about it. I have mountains of it sitting on my desk and it doesn't seem to be getting smaller." Gina sighed.

"Mmm... and it won't get any smaller if we sit here talking all day unfortunately." Alex said as she stood up from the table.

"I hate to admit it but you're right." Gina said in reply.

The two women made their way back to their individual offices' where Alex settled back down behind her desk. She shuffled the files sat in front of her, switched on the CD player, and began concentrating on the job in hand.

As she read over each statement she came across a name that she recognised; a name that she hoped she was wrong about. She entered his name into crimmint and read the information in front of her. Sure enough it was exactly who she thought it was. She printed the sheet and took it across to Gina.

"Mum, something's come up in my investigation that I think you should have a look at." Alex said as she entered the office and handed her Mum the sheet of paper.

Gina read over it and her blood ran cold.

"Am I right in saying that he's your Dad?" Alex added.

Gina glanced up at her and then nodded her head. She gestured at Alex to sit down, So Alex did as she was told and waited for her Mum to speak.

"What exactly is the case that you're reviewing?" Gina asked calmly.

"It's a robbery from a bank job in April 1980. There were three men involved and a getaway driver. They killed one of the guards and paralysed another before making off with almost two hundred thousand pounds. A few days ago I picked up this guy in his late fifties, early sixties, for beating another older bloke. I wasn't able to get anything really out of him, so started doing a bit of digging and that's when I got involved in the re-investigation of this case. I didn't realise that your Dad was involved until just now." Alex explained.

Gina re-read the sheet of paper in front of her.

"I knew my father was a criminal but I always thought he was low level. I didn't think he would ever get caught up in something like this." Gina exclaimed.

"Well it's certainly a detailed and varied CV he built for himself." Alex commented.

"Mmm... How far into the investigation are you?" Asked Gina.

"Not very far yet. I'm just doing the background checks first." Alex replied.

"Would you mind if I assisted?" Gina asked cautiously. She didn't want Alex to feel like she was breathing down her neck.

"No of course I wouldn't mind. Actually if there's anything you can tell me about your Dad and the company he kept, it would be helpful to the case." Alex said.

"Well there's not an awful lot I can tell you to be honest. I mean you already know that he tried to avoid responsibility for us as much as possible; he used to leave the house early in the morning and not come back until late in the night." Gina said bitterly.

"What would he do when he went out?" Enquired Alex.

"When I was about ten I used to think bookies worked fifteen hour days, because that's exactly what he would work. I realised soon after though that he was working, just not within the boundaries of the law. He made his business successful but it still wasn't enough for him. He became greedy and that's when he started to money launder and, although I'm not sure how, he used to fix results for some of his 'clients'." She explained whilst Alex listened intently.

"How do you mean fix results?" Alex asked curiously.

"When I was fifteen I left school and went to work in one of my Dads' shops, as you know. Quite often some shady character would come in looking for him but they would never place a proper bet. My Dad would always take them into the back, spend about half an hour with them, and then they would leave. He would leave me in charge shortly after and head out somewhere himself. He never told me where he was going, so one day I thought I would follow him."

"So what happened?" Alex butted in.

"Well I followed him to a race track. They were racing dogs and training them. He approached this bloke, they seemed quite pally, and anyway they looked at two dogs that looked very much identical. The other bloke from the bookies arrived and gave the two dogs the once over and then handed my Dad a large amount of money." Gina continued to explain.

"Ok, so what happened next?" Alex asked, very intrigued.

"Well at first I wasn't sure what was going on. I found out that the dog was named Golden girl, and was due to race the following Saturday. I wanted to find out what was going on, so that Saturday I went to the races. My Father was one of the bookies taking bets; the odds for Golden girl were really good against the other dogs that she was racing, and it looked set for her to win. Anyway a lot of people agreed and placed their bets on her. Unfortunately she came in last, which obviously meant that my Father didn't pay out. A couple of week's later Golden girl was racing again, and the exact same thing happened. The odds were good but she came in last. I was really suspicious by this time, because a dog with those kinds of odds doesn't lose two races in a row. So for dogs with a reputation for losing, the odds aren't great, so in the next race I think the odds were something like 20/1. It was at this race I saw the guy who gave my Father the money. He hadn't been to any other races until then. He went up to about five bookies and placed a bet of £200 on Golden girl. This time when the race ended, it was Golden girl that won. The guy won £20,000 in total, which at the very end he split with my Father. It turned out that they had been racing two dogs. One dog obviously wasn't a racer at all which meant it got a reputation as a loser and then when the odds were high they would race the second dog and place the bets themselves." Gina finished.

"Wow clever scam." Alex sounded amazed.

"Yeah it was but I thought that that was the sum and total of his illegal activities. I never thought for a moment that he would get involved in something as big as a bank job." Gina replied, looking down at the sheet of paper in her hand again.

"What are the chances, do you think, that he could have been forced in to it?" Alex asked.

"There is a very small chance. My Father never did anything he didn't want to." Gina said with a sigh.

"Well I really want to talk to this bloke, Jeremy Samuels. He was the getaway driver and also the victim of the assault the other day." Alex explained as she stood up.

"Have you got an address or anything for him?" Gina asked as she grabbed her coat and belt.

"Yes he lives at number 22 Jamaica lane." Alex read from a note she had made in her notebook earlier.

"Right well let's start there first then." Gina said as she switched her office light off and headed down the corridor.


	2. Chapter 2

"So what was your Dad like?" Alex asked her Mum as they drove towards Jeremy Samuels' flat.

"Well if I'm honest, you know about as much as I do." Gina answered; she had a hint of resentment in her voice.

"Yeah, but you must know something about your Dad. I mean what was his personality like? Do you have any good memories of him?" Alex pressed.

"No I don't have any good memories of him. He was never there when me and Richard were young, and if we ever did see him when we were older it's because we made the effort. A lot of people think he only married my Mother because of me." Gina replied.

"What do you mean, because of you?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It was a well known fact in the square where I lived that my parents weren't married when I was born. They pretended to be if anyone asked, but those closest to them knew. Seemingly my Mothers' parents weren't very impressed about it; so just after my first birthday they were legally wed." Gina explained. "Why do you want to know about him anyway?"

"I don't know, just wanted to find out what the rest of my family were like." Alex replied simply.

"I don't think they were ever happy together really. My Mother suffered from bad depression and he couldn't cope with it. They used to argue and fight day in day out. He used to go down the pub to escape, when I was really young, I vaguely remember him coming home and they would start on each other again; only this time they would try knocking bow bells out of each other. Once Richard was born things became worse. My Dad was never home and my Mother started taking valium." Gina said.

"So did he start the business from scratch?" Alex continued to ask. She knew and understood that her Mums' parents was always a raw subject for Gina, but she had so many questions buzzing round her head.

"No he didn't actually. Originally it was my Grandfathers business; he'd been a bookmaker all his working life, when he died he left it to my Father." Gina replied as Alex turned onto the estate.

Alex parked the car outside Samuels' flat and Gina quickly got out of the car; which to Alex meant she wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible. The two women approached the door to his flat and Gina knocked loudly. When he opened the door he had clearly been asleep, but he looked badly beaten from the attack the previous day.

"Mr Samuels, I'm Sergeant MacDonald and my colleague is Inspector Gold. I met you yesterday in connection with your assault. Can we come in please?" Alex said authoritatively.

Samuels' let them in and looked cautiously at Gina as she passed him.

"Gold eh, wouldn't be any relation to Derek Gold by any chance?" He asked, although it was more of a statement than a question.

Gina took a deep breath and drew herself to her full height.

"And what's it to you if I am?" She replied defensively.

"Well I want to know why Dereks' daughter would want to get herself involved in this. Surely it can't be a coincidence that you are here? And don't deny that you are his daughter; you're the spit of him." Samuels' sneered.

"What difference does it make? Alright, yes I'm his daughter, but that has nothing to do with you. I am here to deal with your case; and if you're not careful, I will walk out of here and not take the complaint any further. Do you understand me?" She replied taking a couple of steps closer to him.

He didn't say anything further but glared at Gina and stared her squarely in the eyes. She didn't flinch, didn't move a muscle, but continued to stare him out. They finally broke eye contact when Alex interrupted.

"Mr Samuels we are here to find out why you were assaulted. I need to take a full statement from you." Alex said a little more cautiously.

"Well there's nothing I can tell you. I didn't see the guy that hit me. It all happened so fast and he was off before I could do anything. Maybe it was just some kid after my wallet." He said hopefully.

Alex smiled slightly. "Well it's funny that you should say that, because several witnesses gave us a description and we believe that it's this man here." Alex pulled out a photo from her pocket and unfolded it. "Do you recognise this man?" She asked.

He glanced at the photo and shook his head. "Nope I've never seen him before in my life."

"Well Mr Samuels we've identified him as Alexander Scott. You must have a very bad memory, because you know him very well. He is one of your ole mates from that bank job you pulled in 1980. So would you care to explain that?" Gina patronised.

Samuels didn't say a word. His eyes widened with surprise.

"I think we had better continue this down the station, don't you?" She added as she led him out of the flat.

Once they arrived at the station Alex and Gina took him into an interview room. He wasn't officially under arrest, they didn't have anything to arrest him for, but he had asked his brief to sit in with him anyway. He had claimed it was to make sure they didn't 'fit him up'; although the two officers doubted that this was his real reason.

They asked him for more details about the bank job and the assault. He refused to tell them much, most of what he told them they knew already. He gave his version of events when Alexander Scott assaulted him. He was very vague on the details and Alex knew he wasn't telling them something.

"Do you have any idea why Mr Scott would want to assault you? I mean it can't be a coincidence that he happens to have been released from prison only a few weeks ago, released after serving 20 odd years for a robbery that he did with you; and then he assaults you for no apparent reason." Alex said.

"Look like I told ya, I dunno why he attacked me but I don't want to pursue it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home if that is all officers?" Samuels said as he stood up.

Alex and Gina didn't have any choice but to let him go. He wasn't under arrest and was there of his own free will, therefore he could leave when he wanted. Alex led him out of the station and then rejoined her Mum.

"So what do you think?" She asked as she sat down in the arm chair in Ginas' office.

"He's not telling us something, and I intend to find out what it is. Have you got the entire case file from the 80's bank job?" She asked as she poured two glasses of whiskey and handed one to Alex.

"Um... yeah I think so. I think the next step will be to re-investigate the job and find out what all of this is about, because clearly we ain't going to get a straight answer from anyone." Alex said.

"I agree, I think that's a good starting point. We can start that in the morning though. For now I think the best idea is for us to go home and get some sleep." Gina replied as she pulled off her tie and unbuttoned the top button of her shirt.

"Mum will you be ok with this investigation? I mean it involves your Dad and we both know we could unearth... well things we may not expect." Alex asked awkwardly.

Gina looked at her daughter and wasn't too sure how to answer. She wasn't certain what they would find, but deep down she knew her reasons for wanting to get involved in the investigation. She wanted to find out exactly who her Dad really was, and find out what was so important it kept him away from the responsibility of his family.

"I'll be fine, but this will be your investigation so you call the shots. Anyway that looks like Smithy back from court. Took him long enough." Gina commented as she sat down in her own chair.

Smithy looked exhausted as he walked into the office. Gina had already poured him a glass of whiskey and handed it to him as he flopped into the other arm chair.

"How was your day?" Alex asked him once he was settled.

"Hell. I hoped I was gonna be back sooner than this, but two of the witnesses retracted their statements at the last moment. Anyway to cut a long story short the judge said the whole thing was a farce and he dropped it." He replied sounding incredibly narked.

"Well never mind we can go home now and forget about it. Come on." Alex said as she stood up and made her way towards the door. "And you're coming too aren't you Mum?" She added as an order, not a question.

Gina tiredly nodded her head and followed her daughter and son-in-law out of her office, as they all made their way home for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

The following morning Gina and Alex sat in the station already working hard on their case. It was barely half past seven and Alex had already made a board with photos and plans of the bank job. Gina had been up speaking to the Superintendent and the DCI and bringing them up to speed on the job. She really wanted it just to be her, Alex and Smithy in on the case but Jack had offered his services along with Jo Masters.

They had all agreed that the investigation had to remain on a strictly need to know bases given the nature of the case. Once all five officers were in the briefing room, Alex started to explain the case in full and what they had already found out.

"Ok on the 16th of April 1980, officers were called to a bank on Burleigh Street at half past seven in the evening. Cash was always taken from the bank at about half past seven, quarter to eight. This was when the bank staff counted the money etc. Now investigating officers at the time believed that the bank had been watched for a few days, if not weeks previously by these four men; Alexander Scott, Jeremy Samuels, Peter Cruickshank and Derek Gold. So the security van pulled up and the two security guards jumped out and walked round the back. They waited for the guards to take the money out of the bank and put it into the back of the van. Once the van was ready to move off, Cruickshank, Gold and Scott jumped out of their car and went after them in a matter of seconds. Samuels' was the getaway driver so he stayed in the vehicle. The other three were all armed and the first guard was shot dead by Scott. The second was badly injured by Cruickshank but survived. Our assailants then made off with nearly two hundred thousand pounds in cash. Officers arrived at the scene after the bank manager Alan Davies called the police. They later caught up with Cruickshank, Gold and Samuels', but Scott escaped and has never been traced until two days ago. Samuels' was sentenced to twenty five years and Cruickshank was given a life sentence for the attempted murder, armed robbery and a string of other offences. Gold unfortunately died before the trial." Alex explained calmly. She glanced at Gina who looked to be in a day dream.

"The reason we have re opened the case is because of an incident that took place the other day. Alexander Scott has been identified by several independent witnesses as the man who assaulted Jeremy Samuels. We need to find out why he came out of hiding, why he assaulted Samuels' and what he plans to do next." She finished.

"Now this is Sergeant MacDonalds' investigation, therefore she will be your first port of call with any new evidence you may discover." Jack said.

"Ok so DC Masters, can you go with the DCI and question Alan Davies. Smithy and the Inspector will be accompanying me to Shadwell prison to speak to Mr Cruickshank. Does anyone have any questions?" Alex asked and was greeted by silence. "Right well let's go then."

All five officers made their way out of the briefing room and down into the car park. Alex took the car keys to Sierra one and reversed out of the parking space.

"Cruickshank is in the hospital wing part of the prison apparently. Bowel cancer I believe, and it looks like the only way he is ever coming out of prison is in a six foot box." Alex explained to her Mum and husband.

"I thought you said your Dad was fairly low level?" Smithy said to Gina as he quickly read over her fathers' case files.

"I thought he was low level; but in all fairness, I tried to keep away from his dodgy dealings as much as possible." Gina replied.

"So where were you in April 1980?" Alex asked, glancing at her Mum.

Gina thought for a moment. "I was moving into my new flat and working for another one of my Dads' shops. That was in the south end mind you, so I could keep as far away from my family as humanly possible. I remember the day my Father was arrested; 25th of May. He died on remand in Shadwell." Gina explained.

"How exactly did he die?" Alex asked.

"Officially it was a heart attack, but he had been beaten and partially wounded by a blade. The coroner decided that he had the heart attack due to the shock of the beating." Gina sounded quite calm as she explained this. Not like when she used to talk about how her brother 'died'. She said it as a matter of fact.

"Did they ever discover why he was beaten?" Alex was the one who sounded emotional about the subject.

"Prison officers came to the conclusion that he had been trying to trade contraband with some of the other cons. This particular con had asked him to get something specific, and he couldn't deliver the goods, so they gave him a kicking for it."

"That's awful." Alex sounded shocked. Not so much about what Gina had just said, she had a fair idea of how prison worked. She was shocked more by the fact Ginas' face showed very little emotion as she explained this. It was almost as if she had cut herself off from her family but particularly her Dad.

"Well unfortunately, prison is a completely different planet." Smithy said from the back. He was obviously thinking about his own experience of being inside.

Smithy never spoke about what happened to him in prison, and Alex never asked. He would tell her if she did, but she didn't see the point. It was in the past and that was where it was going to say.

Once they got to the prison they showed their ID and were then taken towards Cruickshanks' room. Once inside they found a frail old man hooked up to various machines and drips. Looking at him Alex found it hard to believe that he had once been a big time criminal.

"Peter, you have three visitors to see you." A prison guard said as he led the officers in.

Cruickshank didn't reply, only grunted in return.

Gina was the first one in followed by Alex and then Smithy.

"Mr Cruickshank, my name is Sergeant Alex MacDonald. We're reinvestigating the bank robbery that you and three other men pulled in 1980." Alex began to explain.

"Yer, what about it?" He replied grumpily.

"Well we need you to explain, in your own words, what happened." Alex continued in her usual kind manner.

"There's not much to say. We went in, shot a couple of guys, stole the cash and legged it. What more do you need to know? Now why don't you piss off and leave me to die in peace." He replied angrily.

"We can't and won't do that Mr Cruickshank. We need you to co-operate with us. A couple of days ago Jeremy Samuels was beaten by Alexander Scott. Now we don't know why he was beaten, but it's a bit of a coincidence that both men were involved in that job with you." Alex continued to explain although her tone faltered slightly.

For a few seconds Cruickshank didn't speak, he looked at the three officers in turn and then gave in. He let out a loud sigh before launching into an explanation.

"He's still alive then? At least that's something I guess. We all thought he'd died years ago. What is it you want to know?" He said calmly, although still sounded a little grumpy that he was being bothered by the officers.

"Is there any reason, that you can think of, why Scott would have attacked Samuels?" Smithy asked.

"No not really. Alexander was the only one of us who escaped without getting caught. We tried to share the money before the feds got us but it wasn't shared out equally. We were interrupted when we were arrested but Alexander got away with the rest of the cash. We assumed at the time he must have gone abroad and wouldn't show his face round here for a while. As for why he has come back and why he would have it in for Jerry, I really couldn't tell you. Now if you don't mind I need to get some rest." Cruickshank said, he sounded tired and rather drained of energy.

"Ok Mr Cruickshank, thank you for your help. We may need to call on you again for information; in the mean time, this is my card. If there is anything that you can think of that may help us with our enquiries, please ring me on that number." Alex said as she handed him the small white card.

Outside the prison Alex gave Smithy the car keys and told him to go open the car. He didn't ask any questions but did as he was told. Alex then pulled Gina to one side to talk to her properly.

"I need you to talk to me Mum. Keeping everything bottled up isn't going to help any. Please tell me what is on your mind, or what it is about this case that is bothering you." She pleaded.

"It's just this whole situation. I knew what my Father was but I've never actually had to admit it. Seeing Cruickshank was the final confirmation about my Dad. The question I have running through my mind is what next? What will I find out about my family, my Father, my whole life next? There are a lot of things that I'm not sure I want to know about. I had an idea about some of them but I didn't want to get involved with any of it. Now it doesn't look like I get much of a choice." Gina explained.

Alex felt her Mum's pain. She herself felt unsure about the investigation and about her own feelings towards it; after all, it was her family too.

"Hey, it's ok we'll get through it together. I'm worried about what we may find; this is something about my family that I don't really know about. I'm going to find things that may be hard to deal with but I will have to and hopefully with your help." She replied as she placed a comforting arm around Ginas' shoulders.

Gina didn't reply but gave a weak smile instead.


End file.
